Paul said…

Finding value in defence could be key to this week’s selection, with a number of big-hitting attackers going head-to-head with less-than-resilient opponents.

That has persuaded me to overlook Marcos Alonso, in spite of Chelsea’s plum home clash with Newcastle.

As the season unfolds under Maurizio Sarri, the Spaniard’s role as a left-back is curtailing his instincts to attack – indeed, Alonso is without a goal or an assist since Gameweek 11.

Patrick van Aanholt and Ricardo Pereira are the top two ranked defenders for goal attempts in the last four Gameweeks, with nine and eight respectively.

Both could also bring home clean sheets in home encounters with Watford and Southampton.

Cardiff centre-half Sean Morrison boasts a big goal threat for the visit of Fulham – his 19 shots in the box ranks third in defence.

The Bluebirds have also tightened up defensively, with three of their five clean sheets for the season arriving in the previous six.

Burnley wide man Dwight McNeil is my differential midfielder and looks a decent enabler at home to Fulham.

Costing just £4.4m, he has a goal and an assist in two appearances since being installed in the starting XI in Gameweek 20.

McNeil’s six shots and five efforts in the box both rank second for the Clarets in that period. Fulham, meanwhile, have conceded 28 goals on their travels, more than any other side.

Joe said…

Among form premium assets, Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looks the most enticing this week. He takes top spot among my forward selection as he prepares to take on a West Ham side with a solitary clean sheet in their last six Gameweeks.

Strong underlying statistics are also in his favour. Over that same timeframe, the Gunners’ marksman has notched a record 11 big chances, scoring four and assisting a further two goals along the way.

Taking my top midfield slot is Eden Hazard, who is at home to a Newcastle outfit that has conceded the third-highest number of close-range efforts over their last six away matches.

He could do particularly well if Alvaro Morata fails to recover from a hamstring injury, as most of the Belgian’s attacking returns this season have come when the Spaniard has been off the pitch.

Mohamed Salah leads our captaincy poll and should get on the scoresheet against Brighton but I’m not sure he will beat Hazard and Aubameyang’s returns. Over their last six home matches, the Seagulls have only handed opponents seven big chances: the joint-second-best tally alongside Liverpool and Crystal Palace.

Manchester City also face a resilient defence when Wolves drop by but I still think one of Sergio Aguero or Leroy Sane is worth including. While Nuno Espirito Santo’s troops have performed well against top sides, they have conceded in all seven league meetings with Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United.

Burnley and Cardiff look the best teams for bargain-hunting this week as they take on Fulham and Huddersfield respectively.

The Clarets’ backline looks particularly appealing having halved the number of shots they have faced since the goalkeeper’s jersey was wrestled from Joe Hart in Gameweek 20. James Tarkowski looks the safest option. I’ve also tentatively included Hart’s replacement Tom Heaton, even though he now faces competition from last season’s number one Nick Pope, who returned to action in the FA Cup this month following a lengthy injury lay-off.

Az said…

With the festive schedule behind me, I’m turning attention to the battle against my own team’s slide. With so many heavy hitters performing well and there existing a strong template of defenders and cheaper midfielders, I am struggling to find many gems to help make my way back up the rankings.

This week looks a potentially intriguing one with many of the top sides enjoying favourable fixtures, though there are also good-looking home games for teams such as Everton and Cardiff. I really like the look of Victor Camarasa this week, who is in fine company in my midfield selections!

Getting the right heavy hitters in your own FPL teams looks key to surviving the next few months. My top picks this week are Mohamed Salah and Sergio Aguero, the latter of whom I think is being overlooked in everyone’s clamour to get Salah. Aguero looked razor-sharp against Liverpool and should lead the line against Wolves, who do always put up a fight against the top sides but may find the challenge too great at the Etihad.

It’s hard to separate Harry Kane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. I feel as though Kane may be over-performing on his FPL points based on the matches I’ve seen him play, whereas Aubameyang has been very unlucky. I’m reluctant to take Kane out but I do think Aubameyang can do some real damage to me this week and beyond.

My defence selection looks strong and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these players make the final squad. Lucas Digne, Andrew Robertson and Sead Kolasinac all offer so much going forward for their respective sides, while David Luiz and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are slightly less exciting picks but both have good-looking home games nevertheless.

Peter said…

Two premium midfielders (Eden Hazard and Mohamed Salah) and two premium attackers (Sergio Aguero and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang) account for nearly half the budget this week, resulting in drastic cost-cutting measures elsewhere. My selections are therefore somewhat sullied as I scratch around at the unromantic venues of the Cardiff City Stadium and Turf Moor.

It’s an odd quirk of the fixture computer that the bottom two sides (Huddersfield and Fulham) visit two sides just outside the drop zone (Cardiff and Burnley respectively) and, despite going all-in on the pair of hosts, I must acknowledge the fragility of both the Bluebirds and the Clarets.

Nonetheless, I’ve gambled on penalty-stopper Neil Etheridge and Sol Bamba to shut out a Terriers attack with eight away goals all season. That said, Huddersfield’s far-from-irresistible force meets an infinitely movable object, with Cardiff’s the leakiest home defence in the division. I may, therefore, be relying on attacking returns from Bamba (level with Marcos Alonso with 16 attempts in the box this season) and from team-mate Callum Paterson, should he continue in his “out of position” role up front.

It’s a fairly similar story at Turf Moor, where I cross everything in hope that Burnley’s defence – almost as porous as Cardiff’s – can repel a Fulham attack which boasts just seven goals in 11 away games. Again, I may be relying on attacking returns from my defender, with James Tarkowski’s three goals leaving him behind only Shane Duffy as the top-scoring defender. I’m also hopeful that Ashley Barnes can continue his slightly improved form against Fulham’s much-maligned defence.

That at least frees up some cash for the aforementioned fab four who, at the time of writing, top the captaincy poll, suggesting I don’t need to wax lyrical about their potential this week.

Instead, I will seek to justify my selections of Lucas Digne and Richarlison, with Everton failing to record a clean sheet in the last eight Gameweeks and Richarlison managing just six shots on target during that time. What better game to bounce back from (from an attacking perspective at least) than against the Cherries, who also appear to have forgotten what a clean sheet looks like (Brighton in Gameweek 18 aside) and are haemorrhaging an average of three goals a game over the last six Gameweeks. This fixture has the smell of goals about it, and I’ve also added Callum Wilson to the squad in anticipation of a Sunday afternoon thriller.

The Community Champion

This week’s challenger is FPL_SUNNY, who is currently ranked just outside the top 20k having reached a season-high rank of 1,829 in Gameweek 10.

The Community Champion who has the best lead over the Scouts during 2018/19 will win a £100 Amazon voucher (currently we can only offer Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com vouchers).

fclackless’s Gameweek 10 victory over the Scout Squad crew by a score of 77-44 remains the deficit to beat.

Become a Member and access our data

﻿

Memberships for the rest of the 2018/19 campaign are now available for the reduced price of just £10.

Join now to get the following:

Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.

Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.

Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.

I need a sub 5.5 placeholder in midfield, prior to me getting more Spurs / Liv in 25. He will be benched this week

A) Redmond. has the fixtures B) Puncheon - leaves chash for emmergency moves C) Callum Hudson-Odoi - punty, but I'm thinking that if they convnice him to stay they're gonna have to give him minutes. OTOH Sarri doesn't seem terribly inclined to play the young uns

In the member's area, if I wanted to look at Wolves' underlying defensive numbers vs top 6 sides for example, is there a quick way of doing this or do I have to literally enter each GW I need the data from, one by one, and add everything up manually?

Extremely tempted to do Kane > Auba for free. I haven’t liked the look of Kane at all for the entirety of the season. He looks sluggish on the eye test and continues to drop deep into midfield. Granted he has done well over the past couple of months, but this coincides with a purple patch for Spurs. I’m worried that Son’s absence to the Asian Cup will diminish Kane’s opportunities and it’s very hard to justify his price given that Salah will be my perma-captain from now until season end. There’s also the small matter or xG and over and under performance between Kane and Aubameyang. Thoughts?

I think i will keep Kane personally, but if you want to move on, this is the right week to do so. Fixtures for Kane are really good, Son going will indeed diminish his appeal, but with Eriksen and Alli back in the starting 11 selling him may bite back hard. Moura and Lamela are the issues there though Alli and Eriksen will create enough for him imo. Auba is the perfect replacement for him if you ever want to loose him so it's really 50/50 which could go either way.

Which 2 to play from1) Holebas vs cpl ( Scored last time and kept cleanie in parallel match)2) Kamara vs bur ( burnley still conceded big chances consistently even against Hud)3) Jiminez vs mci4) Doherty vs mciI have done consistently wrong calls of jiminez vs kamara in last 3 gw with each of my bench ones getting returnsShould i just punt on playing holebas and kamara as most of top 10k must be playing Jiminez as wolves give city hard time

Mid-term B short-term C (Laca won't play a full 90 mins if he features at all, Lovren is injured this week so won't play, Son could score this week against a poor United defence, Salah is a good long-term pick). I'd wait for press conferences to see if there are any hints about whether Lca will play this week. If he will, I'd do A this week and then B next week. If he won't I'd do B

He may do yes but everybody has thought that every night this week and he is yet to. I think wildcard usage throws off the figures. Use your own judgement on that one. I panicked and did it Monday night for the same reason but he is yet to go up.

Can't answer that! I personally would do A and then B as they are the best mid- to long-term options. It depends on lots of things though like how well you feel Laca and Son will do this week, if Aguero is fit (Pep has said he and Kompany are the only injury concerns), where in your MLs you are etc.

I think Hazard is an awful choice to be honest. Chelsea not in good form, he is very inconsistent, no striker to play off. I don't think you need to take risks with differentials at your level. Just choose the safe options and make the correct captaincy picks each week and you will maintain or rise in rank. Good luck!

Faq, terms & privacy links

Images supplied by Action Images. Images reproduced under licence from Football DataCo Limited. End User Licence 119042. Fixtures reproduced under licence from Football DataCo Limited. All rights reserved. Licence number NEWMEDIA/FantFS/148226a.